nakji

For tempura? Really? I'm wondering if I should invest in a bottle now....

I hope they're still there, too. I'm going to try to check them out this weekend. I don't know what the sheng jian bao counter is, and a brief survey of the office turned up no greater clarity. I'll see if I can catch it while I'm out. A night out eating Korean in the industrial park rather than doing my shopping last night meant I had no proper breakfast in the house this morning. I got up a little early to pick up some breakfast and snapped these pictures: You tiao: If they put sugar on these there would be no way I could resist them. Ji dan bing: I had the ji dan bing with a cup of coffee - perfect hot dough fried in peanut oil, layered with spring onion omelet. Eggy goodness. 4 kuai for about 300g.

Butterfingers is inferior, IMHO, to a Crispy Crunch. But Reese's Cups are the gold standard, especially the extra-thick ones.

That's quite a common method for fried rice in Korea. I prefer it, because you get the oozy yellow yolk to break over the rice. I'm not sure, but I feel like you can get fried rice variations with a fried egg in Malaysia as well. And, of course, nasi goreng often comes with a fried egg on the side.Something I've never been successfully recreated at is the "Thai Fried Rice" or "Omurice" - dishes that completely encase rice with an omelet.

Those are exactly the ones! I'd order a box, but I hardly ever have take-away coffee anymore. Still, it'd be nice to have a stash in my purse for emergencies...

Oh, the lobsters made me tear up a little. I miss really excellently fresh seafood. What are you going to do with them?

The screeching brakes is what gets to me! Thanks for your in-depth recommendations. I'm quite excited about hunting these places down, and I have put pins into my own map at those locations. I will report back in the Suzhou Dining topic. There are some xiaolongbao/wonton soup places in my neighborhood, but I find their skins are too thick for my liking. Sheng jian baozi are my guilty crack addiction. They've got to be super unhealthy, right? With the fried bottom and the hot greasy pork broth inside? Whenever I indulge, I get several bags and spread them around the staff room to assuage my guilt.

Fuchsia Dunlop calls for lard as a frying medium in her "Revolutionary Cuisine: recipes from Hunan Province". Some of the lard does stay in the dishes: it tastes quite nice. Obviously not something I indulge in regularly.

I'm living in Jiangsu right now, and I asked a chef acquaintance of mine for guidance earlier this evening. He said, "Garlic, ginger, scallions to start, and salt in a home wok; at the end in a restaurant wok. Rice; chopped green beans (peas too expensive); carrot if you like. Prawns optional if you have them. Egg last. No soy." I think I could talk him into demo'ing it for me, if there were interest.

I must say on a cold morning, there is no finer smell. I also like the wafts of cha shao smoke coming at me from the roast meat vendors. Thanks. Our street stays open all day, since it's next to the market. The dishes evolve throughout the day, though, so lunch is more about noodles - fried with your choice of bits from a buffet of options, or in soup.

I picked up an Anhui Keemun 2010 from my local last week. Now that the weather's turned cool, it's time for red teas! I like the light smoky finish at the end, but I'm wondering how many infusions I should be getting out of my leaves?

Duh! Of course. I should have read the characters instead of relying on pinyin. I don't have any now, but when I do I'll post a pic. I wish! My husband won't eat fish. I'd be on my own there, Helen. Try it for me and tell me if it's worth making just for myself. A productive use for taro? I get it in my CSA and inevitably give it away to a coworker. I don't usually make a soup to go with dinner, mea culpa.

Agreed. But doesn't Yangzhou fried rice have a salt/chicken stock/MSG element in it?

I keep a tin of that powder on my stove by the wok. Knorr. In a perfect world, I'd have a pot of actual stock going that I could just ladle in.

A slice of Duncan Hines chocolate cake, with canned chocolate fudge frosting and sprinkles. It left a funny taste in my mouth, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

A little chicken stock sizzled around the edges of the wok? Not enough to soggy the rice, but for flavour?

See, I always thought the key to Yangzhou fried rice was the shrimp?

I always struggle to get soft, fluffy curds of egg with my fried rice. Lately I've compromised by making an omelette first, then breaking it up and adding in the rice. I'm going to try your method next. I have the same fear of knocking my wok askew while frying, but all the woks in the shop where I bought mine had long handles as well. I figured I was just chicken, and everyone else knew more about handling their wok with safety than I did. Glad to see I'm not alone. I'm always really careful to swing my wok handle round to the side when I'm deep frying now, but one of these days....

What makes it perfect for you? "Love the wok you're with" is my motto; the only prerequisite I had when picking mine out was that I could heft it with one arm. I can, but just barely. As for eGullet priorities while travelling...I got pulled over in customs this year in a Malaysian airport for carrying out a bag of red rice I'd picked up at the market. The guard wanted to know if I knew how to use it properly and made me wait while she wrote out a recipe. I almost lost a year off my life in fear before I figured out what she was doing!

I admire your wok as it looks considerably less grungy than mine! How do you treat it after cooking?

Here's mine. I take my coffee black. But nine times out of ten, black coffee is extremely hot straight out of the pot. I assume this is because most people cool their coffee down with milk/cream to a reasonable drinking temperature. It's nicest, I guess, when the milk is warmed up, but in a take-out coffee situation that doesn't happen so much. So I have to either ignore the coffee for a few minutes until it hits what I feel is a reasonable drinking temperature; burn my tongue; or - and I have done this the odd time in Tim Hortons where they keep their coffee very, very hot - float an ice cube in it. I don't prefer it this way, but I have done it. What I DO prefer, and have only ever been able to do in South Korea, is use one of those plastic stir-stick things - do you know the kind? They're usually orange or brown in Canada, but at Starbucks in SK they're green. They don't have these stir-sticks at the take-out coffee places in my hometown in Canada, nor in Japan or China - I've only seen them in Seoul. But they make the perfect straw for sipping up black coffee. As you draw the coffee up the small passage ways, it cools the coffee somewhat, and aerates it a little on exit into your mouth, just enough to keep it from burning. Perfect. And I can drink my coffee right away. I keep meaning to pick up a box of the things when I'm back in Canada to carry some around with me, but since I rarely have take-away coffee anymore, it's one of those "someday..." things.

They're a sort of deep-fried cruller. I'm not quite sure what goes into the dough, but they're yeasted. I'll take a photo of some on my way to work next week and add it here. The trip to work is one of my favourite parts of each day, and I can reconstruct it in my memory for each place I've lived in. Definitely Suzhou is the one that has offered the best breakfast options, although that's just a measure of the neighborhood my school is in. I often end up walking home, and it's almost a completely different journey, as all the breakfast stalls are away, but the dinner stalls are out serving different dishes like hot pot, braised duck legs, and more noodles. The roast shops are open, too, for commuters to pick up carved barbecue duck or pork belly, or cold dishes like cilantro salad and stuffed lotus root for their dinners at home.

How long did you steep for?

If the details of the story are true, it's quite shocking. That the editor even tried to make the case to the writer that her work was public domain - well, I can see why the writer is angry. But I can't help feel that it does reflect quite a few people's attitude that things on the internet are free for the copying with or without proper attribution.

I just put up my first bottle of limoncello at my husband's request. He doesn't ask for much, so I thought I'd make the leap. I used 40% "Stolichnaya" and the zest of 12 lemons. The lemons cost more than the booze, which was likely fake. The only limes I had access to were some older key limes that are quite hard to zest, so I didn't bother. The other irritant was that for once, I couldn't find any of the liquor-infusing bottles that are so common in Asia at any of my local supermarkets. I guess after plum season they stop selling them? Who knows. So I had to jam the zest into a narrow-necked bottle. God knows how I'm going to get it out again. I did get a nice bright-yellow liquid right away, so I am thrilled about that. I'm going to give it two weeks in a cupboard before I assess the colour and make a syrup.